National Arts Centre's Le Café introduces environmentally-friendly purified table water
September 24, 2009
Ottawa (Canada) -- Environmentally-friendly table water has arrived at the National Arts Centre (NAC). Beginning this month, the NAC's Le Café Restaurant is serving sparkling and still water in re-usable glass bottles filled on-site using a state-of-the-art purification system by Vivreau, one of Europe's leading suppliers of purified drinking water. Le Café is one of the first restaurants in Canada to install the water purification system.
Part of the proceeds from the sale of the water, which cost $3 a bottle, goes to support the arts through the NAC's National Youth and Education Trust, which invests in young Canadians through the performing arts through professional training and in classrooms across the country.
"This water purification system enables Le Café customers to reduce our collective environmental footprint and support the performing arts at the same time. Those are great options for everybody!" says Chef Michael Blackie, the NAC's new Executive Chef, while adding that Le Café customers will still have the option to order regular tap water for free.
Vivreau Water Purification System eliminates and eases transportation congestion and pollution caused by deliveries, as well as packaging waste associated with pre-bottled waters.
"We used to have four to six skids of bottled water delivered at a time – that's about 1,000 to 2,000 bottles" adds Chef Blackie. "You can imagine how many water truck trips and how much packaging we will reduce over the course of a year."
Vivreau is a private family business founded in the 1980s, which has since grown to become Europe's leading developer and manufacturer of purified drinking water systems. It currently services 65 per cent of the top 100 firms in the United Kingdom and leading Fortune 500 companies.
The machine uses a 0.2 micron carbon membrane filter to remove impurities from the water, including 99.9 per cent of all known pathogenic bacteria, without reducing its natural mineral content.
The addition of the Vivreau Water System is the latest change to come to Le Café since Michael Blackie was named Executive Chef last March. Earlier this month, Chef Blackie unveiled an exciting new menu that showcases home-grown ingredients while celebrating Canada's increasing diversity.
To view Chef's Blackie's delicious new Le Café menu, click here
Chef Blackie has worked at some of the world's finest hotels including the Fairmont Pierre Marques (Mexico) and the Oberoi (Bali)—an exclusive five-star facility voted the world's best boutique resort by Leading Hotels of the World (2002) and listed on Condé Nast's "hot list" during his tenure. Among his many career highlights, Chef Blackie held Executive Sous Chef and Acting Chef positions at the prestigious and world-renowned Mandarin Oriental (Hong Kong).
Most recently, Chef Blackie held the Executive Chef position at Brookstreet in Ottawa where, after just three months under his leadership, the hotel's flagship restaurant Perspectives was awarded the prestigious four diamond rating from CAA.
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For more information, please contact:
Carl Martin
Communications
National Arts Centre
(613)947-7000 ext. 560
(613)291-8880 (cell)
